The brand new pastor and his wife, newly assigned to their
first
ministry, to reopen a church in urban Brooklyn, arrived in
early October excited about their opportunities. When they
saw their church, it was very run down and needed much work.
They set a goal to have everything done in time to have their
first service on Christmas Eve. They worked hard, repairing
pews, plastering walls, painting, etc. and on Dec. 18 were
ahead of schedule and
just about finished. On Dec 19 a terrible tempest - a driving
rainstorm
hit the area and lasted for two days. On the 21st, the pastor
went over to the church. His heart sunk when he saw that the
roof had leaked, causing a large area of plaster about 6 feet
by 8 feet to fall off the front wall of the sanctuary just
behind the pulpit, beginning about head high. The pastor cleaned
up the mess on the floor, and not knowing what else to do
but postpone the Christmas Eve service, headed home. On the
way he noticed that a local business was having a flea market
type sale for charity so he stopped in. One of the items was
a beautiful, hand-made, ivory colored, crochet table cloth
with exquisite work, fine colors and a cross embroidered right
in the center. It was just the right size to cover up the
hole in the front wall. He bought it and headed back to the
church. By this time it had started to snow. An older woman
running from the opposite direction was trying to catch the
bus. She missed it. The pastor invited her to wait in the
warm church for the next bus 45 minutes later. She sat in
a pew and
paid no attention to the pastor while he got a ladder, hangers,
etc. to
put up the tablecloth as a wall tapestry. The pastor could
hardly believe how beautiful it looked and it covered up the
entire problem area. Then he noticed the woman walking down
the center aisle. Her face was like a sheet.
"Pastor," she asked, "Where did you get that
tablecloth?" The Pastor
explained. The woman asked him to check the lower right corner
to see if the initials, EBG were crochet into it there. They
were. These were the initials of the woman, and she had made
this tablecloth 35 years before, in Austria. The woman could
hardly believe it as the pastor told how he had just gotten
the tablecloth. The woman explained that before the war she
and her husband were well-to-do people in Austria. When the
Nazis came, she was forced to leave. Her husband was going
to follow her the next week.
She was captured, sent to prison and never saw her husband
or her home again. The pastor wanted to give her the tablecloth;
but she made the pastor keep it for the church. The pastor
insisted on driving her home, that was the least he could
do. She lived on the other side of Staten Island and was only
in Brooklyn for the day for a housecleaning job.
What a wonderful service they had on Christmas Eve. The church
was almost full. The music and the spirit were great. At the
end of the service, the pastor and his wife greeted everyone
at the door and many said that they would return. One older
man, whom the pastor recognized from the neighborhood, continued
to sit in one of the pews and stare, and the pastor wondered
why he wasn't leaving. The man asked him where he got the
tablecloth on the front wall because it was identical to one
that his wife had made years ago when they lived in Austria
before the war and how could there be two tablecloths so much
alike? He told the pastor how the Nazis came, how he
forced his wife to flee for her safety, and he was supposed
to follow
her, but he was arrested and put in a concentration camp.
He never saw his wife or his home again for all the 35 years
in between. The pastor asked him if he would allow him to
take him for a little ride. They drove to Staten Island and
to the same house where the pastor had taken the woman three
days earlier. He helped the man climb the three flights of
stairs to the woman's apartment, knocked on the door and he
saw the greatest Christmas reunion he could ever imagine.
